Damascus - Syria on Wednesday confirmed the assassination of a top army general who was described by the Arab media as having been the Syrian regime's liaison with the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militant group.

"(Mohammed) Sleiman, an officer of the Syrian Arab Army has been assassinated," Butheina Shaaban, an adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, told reporters.

"An investigation is underway," she added.

On Sunday Arab media reported that Sleiman had been murdered.

The Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat quoted "informed sources" in London as saying that a senior Syrian officer had been found dead.

"The circumstances of the incident are not clear," the London-based paper said in its report, which said the sources suggested that the slain officer had been "in charge of sensitive files and closely linked to the Syrian top brass." -Agencies